As we interact with private practice colleagues around the globe, it’s clear enough growth came a bit tougher this year than some. That said, it’s equally clear where the right growth strategies are in place along with the tendency to FINISH initiatives we commence, we can buck the trend and see record production despite what’s going on down the street, across the state and across the country.
Even across the border. I had a very interesting conference call yesterday with the leadership team of a Canadian province association of optometrists mindful of competitive challenges their members face from “disruptor groups” coming on strong up yonder (and here). I was highly encouraged by their intention to boldly do something about it, at both individual practice and full membership levels, and thought it great “blog fodder” to share a few strategies we discussed to help them win. …And help us have a record 2023 while we’re at it!
If you’ve been listening to the podlectures and reading the blogs, you know we at THRIVE are bullish on private practice right now. I’ve simply never in my four decades of this seen clients do better than we’re seeing now. That’s not to say it’s easy. Record outcomes with the forces and messages driving consumers elsewhere are anything but that, but the relationship niche still wins over the commodity niche if we power it to do so; and glad to share a few strategies we’re discussing with this group (along with a few others) and deploying in the year ahead.
Establish Objectives According to OBJECT, not Meaningless Benchmarks or Trends!
It’s amazing what people might accept as reality when it doesn’t have to be reality at all. It may be the benchmark or trend, but that absolutely does not make it reality for our patients/team/practice if we choose otherwise.
A great example and one we discussed yesterday is Capture Rate. This is a practice vital sign we absolutely recommend be reported/discussed team-wide every week, and it’s amazing how we impact this metric when we do so.
Once upon a time, a typical private practice’s capture rate was 90 percent plus; while today, many practices are under 50 percent and some more like half that. That said, surely your practice, a shining light for patients in the healthcare darkness, is capable of 60 or 70 percent (plus) here, right? And the first step to achieving that is clarifying a progressive object that reflects what we WANT and are CAPABLE of doing. Right? And how would such an outcome impact patient quality of life and practice profitability?
The more powerful the object, Colleagues, the more we power our results. Let’s have objectives that reflect what we’re capable of doing in this practice, not what some state-of-the-industry report established as the norm.
Teach Them to KNOW WHAT YOU KNOW!
We know things our patients don’t know, right? And these are the very things that put us in the winning value position when they know them. Think of all the examples:
– There are dramatic differences in the thoroughness of an eye exam from one place to another. Right? …So tell ‘em that!
– Filling a doctor’s prescription for a certain medicine will produce the exact same outcome no matter where or how you fill it, but nothing could be further from the truth with a prescription for glasses. Right? …So tell ‘em that!
– The joy of contact lens wear for a given patient will be radically different based on the specific type of lens and the program and care within which it comes. Right? …So tell ‘em that!
– The scope of care and patient life outcomes from that can be very different from one provider to another. Right? … So tell ‘em that!
As we’ve discussed in past conversations, most consumers (more than plenty for us to make a living!) choose the higher quality health care or health care product when they understand the differences. So let’s teach patients (and potential patients) the differences, as in literally script in writing our doctor and staff presentations, run that offense, and score!
Protect and Fortify the best Relationship in Health Care!
I’ve said it a thousand times (literally), so what’s the harm in one more. In fact, it’s one of my Six Fundamental Rules of Marketing (Rule Number Two to be exact): If you want someone to know something, TELL THEM! Let’s make sure in the coming new year we teach (tell) patients how we value the relationship. Have a written piece the doctor hands patients in the exam room that talks about how we view our patient relationship and serve that. No one has ever done this for them as a patient (or as a customer anywhere), and they’re amazed that a doctor would ever do/say such a thing!
Expand Your Brand!
More than ever, consumers respond to what they perceive as specialties that align with their wants and needs and brand strategy is a great way to position yourself as the exact and right specialty solution.
This very month, we’re helping a third and soon-to-be fourth generation practice with a fantastic vision therapy knack brand that equally fantastically. A brand within the brand… sort of like Wing Street inside Pizza Hut, or Kenmore or Craftsman, inside Sears (which now are much stronger brands than the mother brand itself!).
As we’ve discussed, effective branding is not about being clever. It’s about teaching people who don’t know what you know (in this client’s case, we can fix visual processing as well as correct vision) to know what you know with a few words. So let’s think about the parts of our practice and leverage them for a better whole and the record production that comes with that.
The Fashion and Style Segment. The Technology Segment. The Fix Vision Segment. The Medical Segment. The Better Performance Segment. The Nutrition and Health Segment. Few businesses can leverage effective branding strategy for their overall consumer offering like a modern, full-scope eyecare practice!
Grow Revenue-per-Patient!
Like Capture Rate, it’s tempting to fall in line with the nay-sayers who claim falling RPP is just a sign of the times.
But why then do we see such dramatic differences in this vital sign in two practices a few blocks apart or even two doctors in the SAME PRACTICE?! We track this and other metrics in a whole lot of practices, and it’s not unusual to see a $200 difference here. Same consumer market. Same local competition. Same big box stores. Same internet. Same managed care/third party/vision plan world. Yet dramatically different results. Don’t fall for it, Colleagues… we still control this outcome if we choose to, and let’s choose to!
Target Your New Patient More Deliberately!
In the early going of a practice, we’ll take any patient that’ll sit in the chair, right? We all get that. But as we grow the practice and are more and more booked-up, it’s paramount we be proportionately more deliberate about exactly who our new patient is.
That’s the great thing about marketing. You can actually target your next new patient. You can appeal deliberately to a consumer that thinks a certain way and desires a certain way of consuming. When did you ever see a practice specifically promote itself as THE SOLUTION for a person/family without a vision plan? Can you believe practices don’t do this? It’s obvious we want to attract such patients, but we don’t deliberately appeal (inside OR outside the walls) specifically to these people (like me for example – I don’t have a vision plan, nor does my wife who’s a public-school teacher working for the 2nd largest employer in our area!). Remember, there are more consumers out there without a vision plan than with one!
Reach Them Where They Are!
Many consumers in this day and age want you to reach them where they are, not where you are. Bring your offering to them where they want to shop, rather than require they come to you. The reason they buy on-line is not necessarily that they want to buy from someone other than you, it may simply be they want to buy from home (or office, or car, or the gym, or while waiting in line somewhere). So let’s get our e-commerce opportunities up to par, and watch that capture rate and other metrics go up accordingly.
FINISH!
When you think about it, it’s incredible how much emphasis is put on commencement. It’s what all the speeches are about, right (the first step in the longest journey, the graduation speeches, etc., etc., etc.). Commencement. But honestly, I’ve learned in business commencement is overrated. It seems everyone and every team is pretty good at starting things. Results come not in commencement, but in FINISH. It’s the team that FINISHES what they start that gets the results, and finish has nothing to do with time. We all have the same sixty seconds in a minute, sixty minutes in an hour, twenty-four hours in a day, seven days in a week and fifty-two weeks in a year, and yet, it amazes me how some teams just tend to finish and some just tend to start and not get much past that. Finish is a choice, Friends. So let’s choose to finish and let the good times roll. Let’s put together strings of record month after record month after record month and make the new year upcoming a record year (after record year after record year). Let’s think about our desired end point(s) and reverse engineer the initiatives to go there. And let there be no doubt…we see it every day…we CAN have a record year next year (and a record month this month) despite the economic news they’re putting out there!
Like all THRIVE content, the purpose of BOWEN’S BLOG and SUMMIT TALK Podlecture conversations is to keep us driving together toward IMPACT. If something here has struck a chord, shoot us an email or give us a call and let’s talk it out! Email tbowen@mythrivecoaches.com or call 402-794-4064.